May's newsletter features articles from senior colleges that offered courses on climate change and alternative energy this spring. The classes were a big hit! Please take a moment to read more about the MSCN Leadership Academies that will be offered this fall. More info will follow about these academies.

Some submissions have been converted into pdfs to save space. These articles are high quality and well worth reading. Please download Adobe Reader if you are having trouble opening our attachments. We are also archiving each newsletter on the MSCN web site so if you delete your newsletter from your email in-box you can still find us online.

Please keep sending in those submissions from your senior college for the newsletter!

Kali Lightfoot

Executive Director

Climate and Alternative Energy Courses Big Hit this Spring

Senior College at Bridgton is excited about its 4 week spring course
"Climate Variability and Alternative Energy Sources." Each of the
weekly sessions will feature a prominent speaker on topics of climate,
geothermal energy, wind and solar, tidal energy. The course, scheduled to begin in April, has been received with great interest.

Submitted by Dee Miller, Senior College at Bridgton~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of the more
exciting and popular courses this spring at Downeast Senior College in
Ellsworth has been "Alternative Energy and More!" The first session on
Geothermal Energy, was presented by two engineers from Oak Point
Associates, Christine Lyle and Matthew Albert. They did a wonderful
presentation on the geothermal heating and cooling system their company
is presently building for the new Ellsworth Elementary/Middle School.

Downeast Senior College members enjoying recent field trip

For
the second class, members toured the Ellsworth Dam with Richard Finnelly Jr.
who showed them the intricacies of water power. With the recent rain, the turbines were certainly showing off the power they can
produce. The group then traveled to Orono and toured the Advanced Structures
and Composites Center on the University of Maine campus. Edwin Nagy,
structural research engineer, took them on a wonderful tour of the
facility, explaining the "Back-Pack Bridge" they have developed as well
as many other projects they are working on. The tour was followed by a drive
down to Pittsfield where members viewed a completed "back-pack bridge:" the
Neal Bridge. At the final class, members will visit a wind mill in
Hancock, Maine, and learn about wind power.

Submitted by Elaine Dow, Downeast Senior College

St. John Valley Spring/Summer Term Gets Underway

St. John Valley members intently engaged during a senior college course

The St. John Valley Senior College will hold its first session of Spring/Summer
Term 2010 on Tuesday, April 13 with a one-session sing-a-long program
entitled, Spring Into Song, led by Joanne Zafonte of Fort Kent.

Other
sessions on tap for the St. John Valley Senior College Spring/Summer
Term
2010 include: What Is Language? with Fr. Jim Nadeau; Medicine And
Nursing From The Ancient Past To The Present with Roger Paradis; You
Can Take The Allagash Out Of The Wild, But You Can't Take The
Wild Out Of The Allagash with David Soucy; Aroostook
Experience Field Trip (The Chill of the Cold War and the Wonder of a
Wildlife
Preserve) to the former Loring Air Force Base with Betty Rinehart; The Legacy of Our Ancestors' Employers with Chad Pelletier; Math,
Magic, and Mystery with John Elliot; What Makes An
Author? With Faye O'Leary Hafford; Seven Ideas That Shook The
Universe with Ben Paradis; Contemplative Meditation
with Rella Banzanilla; and Fashion After 50 with Kate Fecinta.

For more information about the St. John Valley Senior College, membership fees,
session costs, and the Spring/Summer Term 2010 schedule, interested individuals
should contact either the MSAD #27 Adult and Community Center at 834-3536 or
the Madawska/MSAD #33 Adult and Community Education center at 728-6314.

Submitted by Peter Caron, St. John Valley Senior College

SAGE UMPI Tours WAGM TV

On March 31, a group of 35 UMPI SAGE
members kicked off their Spring Session with a learning excursion to
the WAGM-TV station, NewsSource 8, in Presque Isle. WAGM is the primary
CBS affiliate and operates the area's FOX affiliate on its digital
sub-channel. The SAGE participants got a look at the behind-the-scenes
operations, learned some of the history of the station and met the team
members who work there.

SAGE UMPI at TV Station

Shawn Cunningham, News
Anchor/Reporter, was the tour guide. As one SAGE
member said "She was not only interesting but extemely personable." The
staff behind the scenes explained the technicalities of broadcasting
and answered many questions. Rene Cloukey, Sports Director, "gave us
great sports insight". Meteorologist, Ted Shapiro,"schooled us about
the art and actuality of weather". He encouraged those interested in
learning more about weather to take his class at UMPI and stressed that
anyone over 65 can take classes free. Ted took pictures of the group
and showed them before his on-air weather report the next day. He also
spoke briefly about SAGE. The group agreed that "this was two hours
well spent", "it was a great learning experience", and "a SAGE trip we
will long remember".

UMPI SAGE courses this spring session
will include Civil War Discussions, Moving to Music, Oldies But Goodies
Film Series, Journalism Ethics, Creating an Artist's Book, Music in
Your Life, Cooking for Two, Buddhism, Writing Poetry, and a two hour
presentation titled "A Recollection of Life in the Maine Woods." They
will end their spring session with a visit to the Aroostook National
Wildlife Refuge.

Submitted by Janet Snow, SAGE

Leadership Academies to be offered to Maine Senior College Members

After the last Maine Senior
College Network Conference, we have had time to reflect and
discuss ideas that were formulated in the leadership sessions.MSC leaders have identified the
need to bring new senior college members into leadership roles in their senior
colleges.

The MSCN Leadership Academies
will be offered to current and new board members, officers and committee
chairs and those identified in their senior college to have leadership potential.The leadership academies will help to identify potential MSC leaders and
encourage their participation in leadership roles in their senior college. Current leaders will have an opportunity to pass along
invaluable knowledge and experience to the new potential group of Maine Senior
College leaders.

Our hope is to encourage MSCN members to become involved in the operations of their
senior colleges.We hope these
Leadership Academies will help to integrate new people into the future
leadership of your senior colleges.

A planning committee is hard at work on program planning. More information on dates, locations and content will be available soon.

What do you do with 28 senior college folks on a late spring
day?Why you take them to Seguin Island
lighthouse with a First Order French-made Fresnel Lens!This was just one of the highlights from
Duane Prugh's lighthouse course at Senior College. To read more about this fanastic tour click below.

The package said to sort them, so sort I did--Laboriously pinching black ones out,Curious hot-orange ones that looked wet off a beach, And a few speckled ones--before I began to doubt.

I fingered those that were wrinkled or thin or bent in upon themselvesAnd threw them out too,Plus a very few that had sprouted early.

At last, out dropped a stick and a stone, lying large across the lentil cobbles.

Out they went,Along with a lone albino bean that I first thought a stone and treated like one anyway,Chucking them into the awful trash with all those lentils--Ones that were out-of-round or not properly green or yellow or brown--Thinking, too late, that all were equally good;That all my sorting was blunder and waste;That I'd not know now how the real thing should taste.

I thought: what a helluva way to run a soup!

And I thought: the package should read"Get rid of the damned sticks and stones.Leave the blessed lentils alone."

Paul L. DeVore, Acadia Senior College

~~~Looking for our Poet Laureate! ~~~

This contest is open to all members of the Maine Senior College Network. For more information, please select the link below.

Safe Passage is a non-governmental organization working in Guatemala with poor, at-risk children and families who are living and working around the Guatemala City garbage dump, Central America's largest, toxic landfill. Safe Passage's programs and staff aim to empower this community, create opportunities and foster dignity through the power of education. Senior College students have worked with Safe Passage in the past by bringing a team of people to volunteer in the program classrooms in Guatemala City. If you would like to learn more about the work of Safe Passage or how you might get involved, please visit the website at www.safepassage.org. If you are interested in scheduling an informational presentation from a Safe Passage staff member, please contact outreach@safepassage.org or phone (207) 846-1188.